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Reading Bike Kitchen is a not-for-profit community interest company run entirely by unpaid volunteers. Founded in 2014, our mission is to support the local community by ensuring that cycling is accessible to all. We achieve this by providing low-cost bike repairs, bike refurbishing & rehoming, bike donations to local causes and free bike maintenance courses.
OPENING Times for 2026 - See below
OUR STORY
Today, we identify as Reading Bike Kitchen* but started as Reading Bicycle Kitchen, which was founded by a small group of people in 2014 who realised the many health, community and sustainability related benefits of cycling and wanted to make this available at a low cost to residents in the local area. We started our journey at Jackson’s Corner as a we-help-you-fix-your-bike workshop, and have resided in several locations since.
(*This is because we lost access to the Reading Bicycle Kitchen Facebook page but still have a few legacy addresses, pages and references which use that name.)
In February 2021 we finally settled at our permanent residence:
Unit C10, Weldale Street, Reading, RG1 7BX
We are completely self-funded but, barring labour costs, have the same outgoings as a commercial company. We couldn’t pay our way without the support of our year-round volunteers. Bike donations are at the heart of our operation - we fund ourselves on the refurbishing and rehoming of donated second-hand bikes and our bike repair services. Donated bikes that are not suitable for their purpose are skilfully salvaged by our experienced team for parts that can assist in our bike repairs.
OUR SERVICES
Although we no longer offer the facilities for you to fix your own bike, we provide lots of services to help you with all your bike needs and more. This includes:
Low-cost sales of refurbished bikes and related donations
Low-cost while-you-wait bike repairs
Refurbishing & rehoming bikes
Receiving bike donations
Jumble sales of bikes/ bike parts (for the cycling enthusiasts)
Donating bikes to local causes. We have also donated over 150 bikes to Ukrainian refugee women and children.
Recycling of bike parts
Annual donation of surplus funds to local and national charities. We gave over £22,000 to charities (nominated by our volunteers) in 2025.
You can view our sales items on Gumtree, just type RBK in the search bar; Facebook Market Place (if the link doesn’t work for you, open Facebook Market Place and search for Reading Bicycle Kitchen); and we also list many items on eBay.
While we fully support the use of eBikes, we find the proliferation of illegal electric powered bikes unhelpful to cycling’s reputation. If we suspect that your bike isn’t in compliance with the law we will decline to work on it. We do not wish to cause offence.
Check out our What We Do page for more info and our Facebook page for upcoming events!
OPENING TIMES
We welcome our customers for bike repairs every Saturday 10AM to 2PM only. If you are looking to purchase or donate a second-hand bike (including bike parts and accessories), you can do so during our opening hours on Saturdays in addition to Wednesdays 10AM to 2PM and Thursdays 5PM to 8PM.
Our free bike maintenance sessions and Jumble Sales are held on the first Sunday of every month. Follow our Facebook page to stay up to date with all our events.
LOCATION
Unit C10, WELDALE STREET, READING RG1 7BX
The entrance is around the back in the car parking area of the small business centre (see map on the location page).
To learn more about our services please visit the what we do page. If you're keen to help us then the donate section is for you. You can keep up to date with our work by liking and following us on Facebook.
